Back to Evidence & Resource Library

Food is medicine: Actions to integrate food and nutrition into healthcare

S. Downer, S.A. Berkowitz, T.S. Harlan, D.L. Olstad, D. Mozaffarian
BMJ

Key messages

  • In the face of the global epidemic of diet related chronic disease, there is increased experimentation with the use of “food is medicine” interventions to prevent, manage, and treat illness

  • Interventions used with increasing frequency in the US and piloted to some extent in other countries include medically tailored meals, medically tailored groceries, and produce prescription programmes

  • Scaled integration of these and other emerging nutrition interventions into healthcare would require significant investment in rigorous research to test different approaches and address knowledge gaps

  • Clinicians need more and better education and training on the appropriateness and use of these interventions

  • We also need to identify sustained funding streams to ensure equitable access and availability for patients

Downer S, Berkowitz SA, Harlan TS, Olstad DL, Mozaffarian D. Food is medicine: Actions to integrate food and nutrition into healthcare. BMJ. 2020;369:m2482. PMID: 32601089. DOI: 10.1136/bmj.m2482.

View the Resource
Publication year
Resource type
Peer Reviewed Research
Social Determinant of Health
Food/Hunger
Study design
Review